Use of a UDL Literacy Environment by Middle School Students With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

Coyne et al. (2017) watched middle-schoolers with intellectual and developmental disabilities use Udio, an online literacy program. The tool reads text aloud, lets kids pick books, and has a built-in chat wall. Researchers tracked how the students moved through the site on their own.

The study was small and qualitative. Staff took notes, saved chat posts, and asked students what they liked.

Every student logged in without help and stayed busy the whole period. They said the audio voices, book choice, and chance to post comments felt 'like real middle school.'

No one asked for teacher reads or paper books after the first week.

Mandak et al. (2019) saw the same quick buy-in when preschoolers with autism used digital books that speak each word. Peggy’s team shows the idea still works for older kids with IDD.

Kostulski et al. (2021) also boosted comprehension by letting middle-schoolers with ASD choose their own passages. Both studies say choice is a cheap glue that keeps kids reading.

Spriggs et al. (2015) pooled older reading studies and found a solid medium effect for teens with emotional disorders. Their number-heavy review and Peggy’s story-based study land on the same positive side, showing the pattern holds across designs and diagnoses.

If you serve students with IDD in grades 6-8, you can hand them Udio or a similar UDL reader and expect them to run it themselves. Turn on the audio, open the library, and step back. The engagement boost you see in the first session is likely to stick, freeing you to coach comprehension instead of managing behavior.